Your students can visit the world and build their background knowledge when they choose to read a book in conjunction with Reading Treks. Find fiction and informational books at every reading level. Each Reading Trek unit has a downloadable PDF with Common Core State Standards, ISTE Standards, Grade Level, Ideas and Activities for using the Reading Trek in class, and a list of Helpful Resources. There is also a Google Maps (KMZ) file. Under the About TeachersFirst Reading Treks on the home page find step-by-step instructions for when you're ready to use a Reading Trek. TeachersFirst is just getting started creating Treks for books. Do you have a suggestion? Select Suggest a Trek from the left menu to let us know about it. We'd love to hear from you!

In the Classroom

These units are perfect for use with a whole-class novel, literature circles, or individual reading! Ask students to keep a journal about what they are reading and learning. Replace traditional paper and pen journals using an easy virtual journaling tool such as Penzu, reviewed here. With Penzu you can add images or your own artwork as illustrations. If you are conducting literature circles a good tool to use for small group assignments and communication is Sembly, reviewed here, or Edmodo, reviewed here. For students or student groups to share their book with their peers, challenge them to transform their learning and design an interactive multimedia poster using Genial.ly, reviewed here. As an option, and for a real challenge, have students redefine their learning and create a music track to go with parts or all of the book using Booktrack, reviewed here, and share the link on their mutimedia poster.

Create and collaborate from any computer using the Microsoft suite of Office apps. Choose from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft applications to begin. Sign in to (or create) your Microsoft account and follow directions. Each application works within the familiar interface of the downloaded applications.

In the Classroom

Take advantage of these free Microsoft applications to access and use documents across a variety of devices. Have students collaborate on reports and presentations using the tools provided on this site. Easily curate and share class projects made using Microsoft Office using sharing links within each tool. Consider creating a class OneDrive account for students to share and upload documents and class projects. Flip your classroom by uploading documents and presentations for students to access on their own, then have students add comments and additional information to the uploaded document. Find 32 ideas for using Office Apps in this informative blog post from Microsoft.

Kodu is a software download for creating Windows PC games through a simple programming language. A download is also available for Xbox games; however, it is not free. The software allows users to create and personalize virtual worlds through point and click options. Additional options offer "if this, then that" personalization to add variety to the game. Under Resources find the "Getting Started" tutorial videos that reside on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as Freemake Video Converter, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Have students work in teams to design and develop content demonstrating an understanding of lessons in any subject area. Begin sharing Kodu with your computer experts who are interested in programming. Allow them to be the leaders in sharing how to use and personalize the program. Use Kodu as part of an after-school computer club. Be sure to take advantage of the resources section of Kodu for tips and tutorials on using the program.

Creative Writing Now offers a broad array of resources supporting the writing of fiction, poetry, and drama. Choose from tabs at the top of the page to find creative writing ideas and prompts, writing guides, and tips for writers. Creative Writing Now also offers free online courses with topics including Endless Story Ideas, Story Structure, and Bringing Characters to Life.

In the Classroom

Bookmark this site as a resource for many creative writing activity tools throughout the year. Encourage students to participate in the free online courses offered; some take as little as three days to complete. Share student writing using Flipsnack, reviewed here, to turn their PDFs into an online book, There is even a page-turning effect! If you have a Word doc or image use PDFaid, reviewed here, to convert them to PDF format.

Think of Check123 as a video encyclopedia with over 20,000 videos from around the world. Each video is approximately 1, 2, or 3 minutes in length. Videos are curated and validated by experts to ensure accuracy and quality. Quality ratings for each entry provide a score of up to 10 points based on accuracy, quality, and entertainment value. Search for any topic or browse through the many categories. Free signup allows you to save videos and request videos for addition to the site. Check123 is a very powerful tool for the classroom. You can create a lesson and search for videos from your lesson or copy and paste a relevant article and Check123 will scan its data base for you. Create quizzes and discussions for the videos that will reside on the videos' timeline. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as Freemake Video Converter, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Bookmark Check123 on your classroom computers for access throughout the year. Pull up short videos on any topic to introduce or reinforce content. Be sure to share a link to this site on your class webpage. Have students use Check123 to find videos on any topic, plants or evolution for example, then share the different videos to learn together. Have students make a multimedia presentation using Genial.ly, reviewed here, and include videos found on this site to include in the presentation.

As the name suggests, Unfiltered News provides news without filters from around the world. Click on any dot on the map to view popular and trending topics. Use the slider bar to see issues dating back approximately one year. Take the Quick Tour for a tutorial on using the site's features. Articles are unfiltered, so you may want to preview information before sharing with students.

In the Classroom

Achieve two goals with this very people-friendly site: provide quality nonfiction reading materials and the latest in current events. Compare and contrast trending topics around the world. Foreign language teachers will enjoy using this site as real-world practice with language skills, simply turn off the translation feature for students to view information in the native language. Have cooperative learning groups create weekly podcasts using a tool like Buzzsprout, reviewed here, featuring news from around the world.

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Increase your knowledge of the world and geography in an entertaining way with GameOn.World. Select from one of the nine categories (Sports, Entertainment, Science, Cities, Facts, People/Things,...more

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Increase your knowledge of the world and geography in an entertaining way with GameOn.World. Select from one of the nine categories (Sports, Entertainment, Science, Cities, Facts, People/Things, and more), and challenge others to join in using the Game I.D. and their name. Play GameOn.World on any device with Internet access; No registration is required! Switch the audio on or off at the bottom of the screen.

In the Classroom

GameOn.World is addictive and not just for teaching geography! It is a whole class activity, so introduce it to your students with a projector and their own devices or classroom computers. The questions are on your large screen or whiteboard, and students answer on their devices. Also, projected on the large screen will be the participant names and results. GameOn is an interactive activity; for instance, for location and timeline games, students respond to questions by moving a marker on a map or clicking a date on a timeline. Use GameOn.World at the beginning of class to engage students immediately. With categories like Sports, Entertainment, Science, Cities, Facts, People/Things, and more, there is something for any student to enjoy and excel in. Use GameOn.World to wrap up the end of class. Students will leave class reluctantly with a smile on their faces! Coming soon to GameOn will be the ability to create your own games, so play what they have, often, and watch for that announcement.

Thingiverse offers over 15,000 3D printing designs and enough lesson plans to keep a classroom busy all school year. All free! Discover lessons for K-5, 6-8, 9-12 and university levels. Also, find lessons categorized by subject. By clicking on any of these categories, you can then search the new page by both grade level and subject i.e. K-5 and Special Education. Find Collections like Quick Projects, Building Bridges, and Featured Projects. If you are really into 3D and want to design your own project, you can do that at Thingiverse, too. Thingiverse's 3D printing documents from this tool only work on MakerBot or Stratasys printers.

In the Classroom

Whether you are a STEM or STEAM educator or teach woods or metal shop, there is something here for everyone. Are you setting up a makerspace and want to include 3D projects? Find more than you can imagine at Thingiverse. Many lessons address Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core State Standards, too. History, math, and language arts teachers may enjoy Cryptography: Sending Secret Messages and could extend it into a cross-curricular project; look at Egyptian Hieroglyphs - Making a Cartouche, too. ELA teachers, take a look at the Book Report project to create 3D Keychains having elements of the character's personality and challenges. Art teachers be sure to check out Art Connector Set SVG Conversion Project where your students can turn their drawing into a sculpture! These are just a few of the many lesson plans and projects to look into on Thingiverse. Cut down the time it takes to discover interesting projects by allowing time in class for students to explore in categories selected by you.

As part of their extensive vocabulary site, MyVocabulary.com includes over 90 word puzzles practicing Greek and Latin root words. This site includes alignment of activities to Common Core Standards. Find 90 additional prefix studies on page 2 here.This site includes advertising.

As part of their extensive site for vocabulary, roots, and more, Vocabulary.com has added a themed area for grammar words. Find interactive vocabulary activities using the same 20 grammar words. You will find interactive puzzles as well as fill in the blanks, definition matches, and true/false puzzles. This and other "themes" available on the site will make vocabulary development enjoyable.

In the Classroom

Share the puzzles on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work with a partner to try out the puzzles on their own. Challenge students to try to create their own word puzzles using a site like HTML Crossword Generator, reviewed here, if you are just beginning to integrate technology into your classroom, or Educaplay, reviewed here, if you and your students are experienced tech users. Share them on a class wiki.

As part of their extensive site for vocabulary, roots, and more, MyVocabulary.com has added a themed area for Animals in their Habitat. Find interactive puzzles using animals and habitat vocabulary words. You will also find fill-in-the-blanks and definition matches, all using the same 21 theme words. This and other "themes" available on the site will make vocabulary development enjoyable.

In the Classroom

Share the puzzles on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students work with a partner to solve the puzzles on their own. Challenge students to try to create their own word puzzles using a site like Just Crosswords, reviewed here, if you are just beginning to integrate technology into your classroom, or Educaplay, reviewed here, if you and your students are experienced tech users. Share them on a class wiki.

Create and collaborate with up to 10 others using this online whiteboard, no registration necessary. Optional registration allows users to save whiteboards for later use. Give your whiteboard a name and choose your board size to begin. Options allow for customizing the look of the whiteboard, adding a chat box, and uploading images. Share with other users using the provided link or with your personalized code. NoteBookCast is compatible with many devices making it easy for everyone to work together.

In the Classroom

Most subject area teachers and their students will benefit from the use of this tool. Allow students to create collaborative drawings as responses to literature. They can map out the plot or themes, add labels, create character studies, and more. Share the finished products on an interactive whiteboard, projector, or your class website. Have a group of students create a drawing, so another group can use it as a writing prompt. Use a NoteBookCast board as a brainstorming or sketching space as groups (or the class) share ideas for a major project or for solving a real world problem. Use this tool with students in a computer lab (or on laptops) to create a drawing of the setting in a story during a read-aloud. As an assessment idea, have students draw out a simple cartoon with stick figures to explain a more complex process such as how democracy works. If you are lucky enough to teach in a BYOD setting, use this site to demonstrate and illustrate any concept while students use the chat and drawing tools to interact in real time. If you are studying weather, have students diagram the layers of the atmosphere and what happens during a thunderstorm, for example. Introduce this tool to students who are working on group projects. Alternatively, have students use this to work as partners or as a small team to complete complex math problems or equations.

The Memory Palace is a storytelling podcast created by an Artist in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Choose any episode to listen online to a real-life story, and view some notes about the podcast. At the time of this review, there were 113 captivating stories, the latest being Elmer McCurdy Rides Again and Again; he's "an outlaw sent to his maker at barely past 30 but not to his grave..." Use tags to find episodes with similar content. Optionally, subscribe using iTunes or an RSS reader and automatically receive new episodes.

In the Classroom

You may want to consider choosing the link Where Do I Start? to begin your journey with this podcast. This section contains the author's personal favorites. Listen to weekly podcasts together in class to stimulate discussion and interest in art and history topics and the art of storytelling. Assign the weekly podcast as listening homework. Some of the comments may suggest songs and other stories that are similar. After you've invetigated those, share them with your students. Have students create a series of questions to ask each other about issues discussed on the podcast. Have cooperative learning groups create podcasts demonstrating their understanding of one of the concepts. Use a site such as Buzzsprout, reviewed here.

In the Classroom

Discover the many ready-to-go, free resources on this site to find spelling lists and activities. This site makes it easy to differentiate instruction and personalize lists for students based on ability. If your students are struggling, begin with an easier list to build confidence. If your students aren't being challenged enough, try lists above grade level to build spelling skills.

TED-Ed Clubs provide a platform for students aged 8-18 across the world to explore ideas, share information, and participate in global conversations. Begin by applying to start a club to discuss thoughts and ideas of interest to your group through the leadership of an adult facilitator. Each club is open to up to 50 members. Clubs provide 13 meetings beginning with three sessions exploring TED Talks, following that, students learn how to frame and share ideas. At the conclusion, participants upload their final talk to the TED-Ed YouTube Channel. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable. You could always view them at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as Freemake Video Converter, reviewed here, to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Facilitate a TED-Ed Club to promote problem-solving skills and creative thinking in any subject. Challenge students to pursue ideas of interest to them in the classroom. Create a club as an after-school activity for like-minded students, or as enrichment for gifted learners. TED-Ed Club provides an outlet for some quieter students with interests other than what is offered in the curriculum, encourage these students to share their interests and passions through the guidelines provided in the clubs.

This recording of an OK2Ask online professional learning session from November 2017, opens in Adobe Connect. Transform your classroom activities by learning how to use Sutori. Engage students and deepen content area knowledge through digital stories. Text, audio, video, discussion forums, and quiz questions bring additional context to content area instruction for your students. Use student-created visual stories and timelines as formative assessment. Brainstorm with others how you and your students can use Sutori in your classroom. Participants will: 1. Learn basic use of Sutori; 2. Explore three different ways to use Sutori in the classroom; and 3. Plan for the use of Sutori in the classroom. This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.

In the Classroom

The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

3x3 Links is a bookmarking site that organizes saved websites into a 3x3 grid. Add items as a link to any website or create a folder that links to a new grid with websites you add. Customize your page to include a personalized URL, add a background image or color, and include or delete captions.

In the Classroom

3x3 Links is an excellent tool for efficiently managing online resources in your classroom. For younger students, use this site as the home page on classroom computers. Add direct links to sites for student use or create folders for each subject. This site allows the creation of multiple grids, create a grid for each content unit or semester. Use the embed code to add the grid to your class webpage. For older students, this site is perfect for organizing and sharing resources for study or research projects. As an example, if your students are doing a research report on a state, ask them to create a grid to include folders linking to different topics including famous people, population information, geography, and history. Although there is an option to create up to 9 cubes in your grid, it isn't necessary so the number of cubes can be suited to fit your needs.

Check any text containing up to 300 words for free each day with this advanced plagiarism checker. Sign up using your email and return to the site daily to check any text. This site compares uploaded writing to a database of 50 million documents, 14 billion web pages, and 25,000 magazines, journals, and books. After checking the text, you receive a full detailed report with results and resources.

In the Classroom

Although the free portion of this site is limited, it is worth bookmarking and sharing for use by you and your students. Be sure to include a link on your class website for students to use at home. Demonstrate to students how to upload their writing to check for plagiarism as part of your ongoing lessons in intellectual honesty. If their work is longer than 300 words, upload a small portion that needs to be checked instead of the whole project. Often when students are researching and writing a report, they find it difficult to put information in their own words. Ask students to attach their report to writing as part of the writing assignment. Encourage them to share reports that indicate plagiarism, with an online bulletin board like Dotstorming, < a href="/single.cfm?id=16997">reviewed here, where other students can comment and help them reword the writing. Then, have them discuss steps to take to avoid it happening in the future. Ask students to create video commercials informing viewers on different aspects of plagiarism. Use a tool such as Powtoon, reviewed here. Share their videos using a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here.

Do you always place sticky notes on your computer screen? This Chrome extension is for you. This simple design allows users to add a note to their screen with one click. Change font size, color, and themes to personalize your stickies. View your notes across devices when logged in to Chrome. Be sure to watch for updates to include multiple sticky notes and features for sharing.

In the Classroom

Make notes for conferences, lab materials, books needed, or even parent conferences on any web page. Add sticky notes to any webpage or PDF shared with students on your interactive whiteboard to remind them of necessary information or as a list of important items to watch for when viewing a page. Create a list of vocabulary words from any website as you view it together. Share this extension for students to use on their device for note-taking.

Create excitement about books and promote the love of reading with Loose Canon. This site provides over 9000 book recommendations to view by subject or grade level. Create a free classroom account to add your books and recommendations by your students. Free accounts allow up to 60 participants to share and compare texts. Be sure also to view the resources provided by Loose Canon. This portion of the site shares assessment, classroom activities, and reading research to viewers without requiring registration. Included is approximately a five minute video explaining reading workshop and features of Loose Cannon. This video resides on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the video may not be viewable. You could always view the video at home and bring it to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as ClipGrab, reviewed here, to download the video from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Share Loose Canon with your students as an extensive resource for finding and comparing books to read. Use materials found on this site to create collaborative Literature Circles in your classroom. If you create an account with Loose Canon, ask students to share their thoughts on books read in school and at home by reviewing and rating it on Loose Canon. These reviews can be made public, or students can keep them private. Take your reading reflections a step further and ask students to share their thoughts through a multimedia presentation using an interactive tool like Sway, reviewed here, that allows users to include images, links, and videos.